Adventures in Geocaching

Adventures in Geocaching
By Allan Olson
I think that the real reason the weekends seem to go by so fast is because we simply have too much fun. If we sat around bored all day, perhaps then our weekends would last longer.
This past weekend I managed to sleep in on Saturday, about 90 minutes longer than I normally do on the weekdays. It was not near long enough in my opinion, but since I couldn’t sleep, I got up and did some reading. Before long it was time to get moving for the day, since we had company coming in the form of my brother and family again.
We picked the kids up at the store and headed out geocaching, aiming for the goal of reaching our 600th find. That goal was achieved, but not in our usual fashion – as an entire family. This time we split into two teams – the girls and the boys. We needed seven caches, and whoever got to three first and back to the designated spot would win. From there we would go together to find #600. Well the boys’ team – myself, Nikolai and Marcus and two nephews – were leading 2-0 when we got a call that ended the contest – the van went down a wrong road and into a spot it couldn’t get out of, so we abandoned our search and went to help the damsels in distress – my wife, Abigail, Alivia, and a niece.
With the help of a Good Samaritan logger, we were able to get unstuck, and at that point my wife called an end to the contest and headed for the nearest car wash. We did some passenger swapping before she left, and it was the boys team, less Marcus and plus Abigail, that continued our quest for #600. We decided to hit the nearby Paul Bunyan Trail to save time and to score our final five caches. It didn’t take us long to walk the half-mile stretch of trail that concealed the five caches. We took the requisite photo after finding “the big one,” and then the kids took off down the trail at a fairly rapid pace. I continued my pace at a walk. We drove another mile in search of a larger cache for Abigail, only to find that it had ended up as target practice for someone with nothing better to do in the woods.
After venturing home, it was time to relax. The kids played after making their own personal pan pizzas; my wife and I enjoyed our supper in peace since the kids were all done eating before we even got started. For dessert, we enjoyed more of my wife’s awesome scones!
On Sunday I wanted to try to find the only three caches of seven still left for us to find in the Hobson Forest. No kids were interested, so my brother and I went out for a walk on some nice trails. Once we got to the first location, I searched and searched, but couldn’t come up with the cache. Frustrated, we headed to the next one. Again, I searched and searched to no avail. In the confusing maze of trails, I couldn’t figure out how to get to the third cache, so we headed back toward the first one. Finally, after extensive searching again, there it was, right in front of me! I was excited – at least I wasn’t going to get skunked. However, by then it was time for my brother and family to head home, so back to the house we went.
All the fresh air and exercise over the past two days proved to be very tiring, so that afternoon I took a nap – and it felt great. For the evening meal, we raided our fridge for leftovers, and then I spent some time wrestling with the kids and we just enjoyed life together as a family.
It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out what my plans are this weekend – deer hunting. It should be an interesting season, with only one doe permit for six hunters, but we’ve managed to find a buck or two before, so hopefully we will succeed again. I hope my gun won’t be shooting blanks like I think it did last year, which would be the reason I was unsuccessful at filling my tag – twice.
Please be safe on the lakes and in the woods – wear your life jacket and your blaze orange, keep the kids safe, and remember to take a picture to preserve a lifetime of memories. Also please watch out for the buses that are transporting our children. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.
The kids insisted on holding their signs upside down to mark this milestone, and I decided what’s the harm in having a little fun! I think this upside down party was led by my nephew Alex, but Nikolai, Abigail and my nephew Trevor were quick to join in the fun. (I did get a correct photo in the end.)

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